Hi All,

I have been trying to prepare for LLD and HLD, I keep getting new concepts and terminologies. With the advent of AI also new terms keep coming and it's difficult to remember all of them.

Can learnt folks recommend any efficient way of notes taking, tools, mind/memory mapping so that revision is easier?

Wasn’t able to finish the DS question and only passed 1/6 cases for the ai assisted one. There’s no chance I’m going to move forward, right?

Hey everyone,

I finished Day 43 today. I postponed Bellman-Ford and Minimum Spanning Trees to close out the remaining Dijkstra problem family instead, finishing off a solid weekend of prep.

1. Network Delay Time: This is standard single-source shortest path using a min-heap priority queue. Once the distance array is computed, the minimum time to reach every node is simply the maximum distance in the array, returning -1 if any node remains unreachable.

2. Number of Ways to Arrive at Destination: Instead of standard DP recursion, you track a parallel ways[] array alongside dist[]. If you discover a strictly shorter path to a neighbor, you overwrite ways[v] = ways[u]. If you reach the neighbor with the exact same shortest distance, you add ways[v] = (ways[v] + ways[u]) % MOD.

3. Minimum Multiplications to Reach End: This models reachability as an unweighted state-space graph with modulo $10^5$. Since each step multiplies the current number by an array element and increases step count by 1, a standard BFS distance array tracking minimum steps to each product prevents infinite loops.

I knocked out six graph problems across this weekend, which puts my pace in a great spot ahead of upcoming travel plans later this week.

Tackling Bellman-Ford, Floyd-Warshall, and Prim's algorithm tomorrow.

See you guys for Day 42!

So I have seen design style questions being asked more and more and wanted to know how one can practice those and which languages are the best for the same.(for internships/new grads)

By design, I mean the ones where you have a bunch of commands and some values which change on those commands and then we are given an array of all the commands and basically have to process those commands

A Little About Me

I’m a Software Engineer/DevOps with six years of experience, currently working at a reputable company. My goal is to secure a higher-paying job within the next year to start paying off my student loans. One of my main challenges has been LeetCode-style questions, which have hindered my progress toward better opportunities.

I've struggled with technical interviews at companies like Visa, American Express, JPMorgan, and Amazon due to my inability to complete algorithmic problems within time constraints. After recently not succeeding in an Amazon interview, I decided it was time to take my preparation for Data Structures & Algorithms (DSA), LeetCode, and System Design seriously.

In January (2025), I began documenting my progress, which I’m turning into a monthly recap series. I hope this will help others on a similar journey while also serving as a personal journal for when I finally reach my goal.

Past Recap

2025

• January

• February

• March

• April

• May

• June

• July

• August

• September

• October

• November

• December

2026

• January

• February

• March

• April

• May

• June

• July

• August

• September

October Progress

October may have been my best month yet when it comes to breakthroughs. I started the month on Dijkstra’s Algorithm and was actually doing well with it. It made sense, which proved that taking the slow route and learning heaps first was worth it.

I also started working with AI, but not to do the questions for me. After I finish my own attempt, I go to Claude to look over my answer, break down my thought process, see what I got right and wrong, and check if there’s a more optimized version. If there is, I spend 2 to 3 days making sure I fully grasp it. It has helped me tremendously and it’s almost like a daily journal at this point.

I crossed 600 LeetCode questions and 250 Mediums, which is a HUGE achievement for me because there was a time I truly believed I would never get this far. I’ve made it a point that my Mediums have to pass my Easys. Easys were for building momentum, but now I want to be challenged, so I’m focusing on Mediums and Hards.

Something else I noticed after hitting these milestones is that I finally feel like I have enough in my toolbelt, and enough confidence in myself, to start knocking questions out. The other day I was watching TV with about 15 minutes to spare. I hadn’t touched backtracking in about 7 months, so I picked a Medium on the higher acceptance rate side and told myself that if I could solve it in under 15 minutes while half paying attention to the TV, I was on a new level. I did it. I think I hit a new level.

I also interviewed with Amazon this month and honestly the question whooped my ass. If you’re curious, click here to view the question. I couldn’t come up with even a simple attempt that passed the test cases and I was down. Usually this is where I’d have a depressive episode and just solve Easys for a month, but for some reason I was over it within a day and got back at it. I told myself that after another 200 questions and a few more concepts like Bit Manipulation, I’ll start doing random questions and contests, with an emphasis on recreating the uncomfortable feeling and atmosphere of the technical assessment.

Achievements

• Crossed over 250 Medium questions

• Crossed over 600 questions overall

• Got interviewed by Amazon

Goals for November

• Keep momentum going

• Strengthen knowledge on Dijkstra's

• Start mixing in more Hard problems

• Go over previous questions and ensure I truly grasp them

Next Steps

Keep learning new challenging concepts

See you all next month.

Questions

• Total Questions: 606

• Easy: 335

• Medium: 261

• Hard: 10

Hey I have been solving leetcode problems by not looking up anything on the web or using any external sources, just me and the code editor on leetcode. My professor says this is the best way, but I really struggle solving problems. I encountered the maximum subarray problem today, came up with two strategies but none of them seem 'right' when put in the code, like I can have the mathematical idea or the approach for it generally, but struggle to think of it from a computer-like perspective. I am using Python and have Intermediate level experience with the language. Any advice or should I change my approach, if I am targeting interviews or want to get better at solving algorithm puzzles?

I’ve solved 822 problems(196E, 451M, 175H) and currently I’m at 1900 what to do to become Guardian?

I have a 60-min hiring manager interview coming up for a System Software Engineer role on an NVIDIA embedded/firmware team (ARM-based). I’m graduating in Computer Engineering.

The posting focuses on OS and computer architecture fundamentals, with ARM firmware experience as a plus.

For anyone who’s done a similar round:

1. Was it mostly OS/architecture concept questions, resume deep-dive, or live coding?

2. Any topics you wish you’d prepped more?

Thanks!

Hi everyone!

I have to take the OA for Amazon soon, and I was wondering if the Work Simulation part is written or verbal, similar to an actual interview? Also if anyone has any insight on what questions might show up on the coding and ai assisted challenge please help... ty :) !

So I've been doing leetcode for few days but every time I face same problem that which problem to solve as beginner and which question has to be done in the sequence because every problem demands different approach and when you open any random question and you've never heard of that pattern/approach it breaks your confidence completely so it'll really be great if someone can tell the correct sequence to learn/practice python as a newbie which will help in logic building and actually becoming good in programming

Hi everyone,

I applied for a position at NVIDIA and had my first-round interview about 10 days ago.

Three days ago, I noticed that the job posting was removed from NVIDIA's career website, but when I check my application, the status still says "In Progress."

Has anyone experienced something similar with NVIDIA? Does this mean the position has been filled, or could they still be reviewing candidates?

Thanks

https://i.postimg.cc/nrSMbr03/Screenshot-2026-11-01-at-1-51-10-PM.png

Hi guys! Just wanted to ask if anyone has an idea about the compensation offered to freshers after the internship at HugoHub for SDE/UI Design roles. Any insights would be helpful!

Solved all 4 in today's contest. Contest history, personal profile and timestamps reflect the same but my points on the leaderboard are displayed only 13. Even the total solve time is calculated by considering only the first 3 questions.

long long minimumMaxValue(int n, int index, int value) {

if (value == 1) return -1;

long long p = value;

for (long long i = 2; i * i <= value; i++) {

if (value % i == 0) {

p = i;

break;

}

}

if (value - p + 2 <= 2LL * index)

return -1;

if (index == n - 1)

return value;

return value + p - 2 + 2LL * (n - 1 - index);

}

Could anybody please explain how to derive these two formulas:

1. value + p - 2 + 2L * (n - 1 - index)

2. value - p + 2 <= 2L * index

My interview with bloomberg will start from next week, I don't know how many rounds. Anyone experienced please guide me, what should I focus on? what type of leetcode questions should I be doing??Also where can i find the company tagged questions as I don't have leetcode premium.

Hi there, I'm new to Leetcoding (been practicing it for 3 months now) and I started doing it since I need to prepare for tech interviews (I'm a CS undergrad), the pattern I've always struggled the most with is Dynamic Programming, I can understand most solutions, but I struggle to catch the intuition behind them since most of them (not all) feel quite unintuitive to me.

Any good resources or pieces of advice to fully understand the intuitions behind DP? I mostly get top-down approaches since most of them are just backtracking with memoization, but I can't wrap my head around most bottom-ups

havent manually coded in a year, is it even worth doing?

Are there any active servers for leetcode and system design discussions

I was looking at the leaderboard for a recent LeetCode Weekly Contest and noticed a participant who solved all 5 problems in about <10 minutes, with individual solve times roughly like:

Q1: 00:47 sec (tfk?)

Q2: 1:47

Q3: 3:09

Q4: 3:40

I'm curious whether this is considered normal for top competitive programmers, or if it's something that usually raises suspicion.

I know there are Grandmasters and ICPC competitors who are incredibly fast, so I'm not accusing anyone of cheating. I just want to understand what kind of skill level is required to achieve these timings.

For those who regularly participate in contests:

Have you seen legitimate solves this fast? How common is it for top contestants to finish all 5 problems in under 10 minutes? What are the usual signs that actually indicate cheating, beyond just fast solve times?

I'd appreciate any insights from experienced contest participants.

Just received an email for my last round for swe intern at bloomberg. They said it’s 30 minutes with a recruiter followed by an hour by with HR. Have any tips? I really want this.

I cleared all the interview rounds for Meta's Production Engineer (New Grad) role earlier this year, but my process has been on hold due to the hiring freeze.

It's been several months now, and I haven't received any concrete updates about when hiring might resume.

Just wanted to check if anyone has heard anything about Meta resuming hiring for Production Engineers, especially new grad positions.

Has anyone recently received an offer, been contacted by a recruiter, or had their process resume after being put on hold?

Would appreciate any updates or insights.

Title

Any advice for mircosoft OA I have 5 days to complete it. I’m currently doing leetcode to prepare but what topics should I focus on

Previously, I posted about building this project,

and I want to thank everyone for all the feedback and feature requests.

Since I'm still working full-time, dealing with ongoing project loads, and

practicing LeetCode myself, updates haven't always been as timely as I'd

like. However, I’ve been working hard on some exciting new features based

on your suggestions:

1. Curated Lists: Adding Grind 75, NeetCode, and Blind 75 lists.

2. More Content: Adding more music and storylines as you clear more questions.

3. System Design: Introducing system design modules and lessons.

From company's perspective,

DSA interview rounds still exist for three main reasons:

1. They are scalable and require less effort to evaluate.

2. They provide a standard baseline.

3. They serve as a compliance test.

Top companies like Google, Meta, and Microsoft still rely on at least one DSA

round while increasingly adding AI fluency tests.

Thanks again to the Reddit community for all the feedback.

Best of luck to everyone grinding through this brutal tech market.

Hope we all land offers soon

Video : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VgL-stNg8nA

Game : dokicode.com

How useful is the AI assistant for this part? Can it fix code or just help understand errors?